Teacher sits out 9/11 rather than skip lesson (Middle school deems material too disturbing)

The Denver Post ^ | Friday, September 12, 2003 | Romi Pekarek

[garmonbozia]

Two years ago, as Jason Ritter watched the footage of the crumbling World Trade Center towers, he vowed to spend every Sept. 11 in the classroom helping his students understand and remember the tragedy. Instead, Ritter, 26, an eighth- grade teacher at Falcon Creek Middle School in Arapahoe County, spent the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks alone at home after administrators deemed his lesson plan "inappropriate" and advised him to rethink it. He said he was told not to talk about the tragedy - or else leave for the day.

Thursday morning, the educator chose to go home.

The controversy began at a back-to-school night meeting last week in which Ritter told parents he planned to show a video and hold a class discussion about Sept. 11.

The parents were enthusiastic about the week-long lesson plan, Ritter said.

"The parents said they thought the kids needed to feel, to understand, the tragedy," he said.

Tuesday, Ritter was in the middle of showing a video of "America Remembers" to his students when Jeanette Washington, an assistant to the principal, dropped by for a routine observation.

Later that day, Ritter was called out of class to meet with principal Cynde Fischer.

Tustin Amole, spokesperson for the Cherry Creek School District, said Washington and other administrators felt the video was too disturbing for eighth-graders.

The video, a CNN special that aired on the network last year, includes images of people leaping from the burning building and images of bloody survivors.

"I'm 51 years old, and I can't watch it without becoming highly emotional," Amole said. "As a school district, we just didn't feel it was appropriate."

Amole said administrators gave Ritter suggestions on other ways to talk about Sept. 11. But Ritter contends they asked him during a meeting Wednesday afternoon not to talk about the terrorist attacks at all during class on the anniversary.

Ritter said he has never shied away from talking to kids about the tragedy. Earlier this year, his class helped design an American flag inscribed with the names of all 2,792 people killed in the World Trade Center attacks. The flag is on display in the Falcon Creek gym, and administrators said they have no plans to take it down.

Administrators called Ritter's one-day absence "voluntary," although Ritter could face consequences if he continues to disregard school policy on curriculum, Amole said.

Falcon Creek, in Arapahoe County near Orchard and Smoky Hill roads, is not the only school where teachers have questioned how Sept. 11, 2001, fits into the curriculum. School officials have been wrestling with the issue for two years, and the answers are not clear-cut, said Kathy Bowan, director of communications at the National Association of School Psychologists in Bethesda, Md.

Bowan encouraged schools to observe a moment of silence but warned that some students would be uncomfortable discussing the terrorist attacks in a classroom setting.

"Teachers need to recognize that students deal with these things in very different ways," she said.

Ritter believes his decision to leave the school Thursday was the right thing to do.

"Friends have asked me, 'Jason, is it really worth your job?"' he said. "And you know what? It is. I have to stand up for what I believe in."

[garmonbozia]

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[Az Joe]

Right, maybe we better get rid of references to the Boston Massacre and Pearl Harbor too.

[Cindy]

Hmmm...Ignoring history is not a good deal. If we don't learn from history; we're doomed to repeat the lessons history could have taught us. Fuzzy fiction and warm feelings will never match up to the cold, hard, factual truth.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: "ATTACK ON AMERICA!" (Updated Daily)
http://www.truthusa.com/911.html

[MarkDel]

Thanks for posting this.

This does NOT surprise me at all. In an effort to not "traumitize" people, we are not seeing nearly enough of the 9/11 events. Personally, no matter how much it hurts, I want to see it over and over and over again so it burns deeply into my being. I want to never forget those events so this nation will never again lose its resolve to win the war on terror.

[kingu]

Cheers to a teacher actually teaching civics and history instead of mush.

[tkathy]

The revisionists are already busy redoing Sept 11. By the time they are through, it will have been American's fault in the history books.

[Porterville]

I hope we can hurry up and push these union-hack-commies out of the education system and put them on welfare where they belong.... why would anyone be so cruel as to send their kids to a public school??? You are better off leaving them in a liquor store, at least they'll learn to read from the magazines and learn about business.

[garmonbozia]

Very well said, each of you!

[netmilsmom]

If he is looking for a new job, he is more than welcome to come to my school. I would want my daughters to see this in the eight grade. Funny how they are old enough to get condoms and have abortions, but they can't handle the truth.

[maica]

Are these the same children who watch today's PG-13 movies, and play video games of violence?

[SauronOfMordor]

An 8th-grader is old enough (13-14) to be exposed to this. Probably the bigger reason is the Administrators didn't want to hear from Arapahoe County's "Muslim Community" about how "uncomfortable" they were. Denver has a significant Muslim presence

[Amelia]

Cheers to a teacher actually teaching civics and history instead of mush.

Yes, usually only the bad ones get the publicity.

[Adder]

"I'm 51 years old, and I can't watch it without becoming highly emotional," Amole said.

Duuhhhh! Thats the point!

You are supposed to get emotional and so are the kids so they will NOT forget. Not forget how they felt, not forget what happened and most importantly, not forget WHO DID THIS!

Too many people try to sugar coat this as a "tragedy" like it was a fire or a tornado. It was tragic but first and foremost it was murder, an attack, a perfidy.

Gawd, I am so sick of the whiners!

[metesky]

I was born 21 months after Pearl Harbor and grew up around my veteran Uncles and Aunts who fought the war, had teachers who fought the war, etc.

We were constantly told and shown the perfidy of the Japanese.

I'm old enough now not to hate the Japs anymore, but I'll never trust them.

As it should be...

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Of course it's disturbing! That is the point. Reality can be disturbing. How do you raise children to deal with a tough world without exposing them to reality?

Public education is a failure not only in avoiding the 3 R's but by adults living in denial teaching children to live in denial.

Public education is a gigantic and expensive fraud.

What these idiotic school administrators are doing is desecrating the memory of the thousands who were murdered by pretending it was no big deal and should be swept under the rug.

[Noachian]

Here we have school administrators that are so politically correct as to deny the children the reality of life.

What kind of education are children to get when overprotective school administrators will not prepare them for adulthood in a terror filled world?

Parents, who love their children and want them to have a clear understanding of how the world works, should sue the school board, and make changes for the sake of their children.

[BushCountry]

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Aurora, CO
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